Abortion Notice Bill Stays Put

Floor Vote Rejected

Hearing To Be Today

RICHMOND — Senators who support a bill requiring parents to be notified of a minor's abortion plans unsuccessfully tried to bring the bill to a floor vote Wednesday.

The senators' attempt to wrest the measure from a committee historically hostile to such bills was defeated by a 23-17 margin.

The bill, sent to the Senate from the House, would require a parent to be told when a minor seeks an abortion.

It will get a public hearing today before the Education and Health Committee, which has been called the "black hole" for abortion legislation because of its track record of killing off such bills before they can reach the Senate floor.

Senators assume that the committee will promptly kill off the measure after the hearing, although Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, a supporter of the notification legislation, said, "Miracles can happen."

Colgan and Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, said they're not giving up on getting a notification bill on the floor despite the repeated setbacks suffered in the Senate this session.

Already, one senator withdrew his notification bill rather than let the Education and Health Committee kill it. Colgan's attempt to amend an unrelated bill and force it onto the floor was thwarted when the senators agreed to send it to that same committee, which never even met to discuss it before the deadline to act on it.

Wednesday's vote was the second time the senators who support the proposal tried to have the House bill reassigned to a friendlier committee in hopes of getting it onto the floor.

"We've got the votes to get it out of here if we can get it up here" onto the floor and out of committee, Colgan insisted.

The last time the measure reached the Senate floor was in 1985, although it has been introduced routinely since.

The anti-abortion senators believe they have the votes now, because several of their colleagues say they support notification legislation but have been voting against the measure because they object to the tactics used to bring it to the floor - such as the bill amendments and the committee reassignment vote.

Although they would not give details of any plans they may have left to force a vote, Colgan and Gartlan indicated they think they still have a chance.

Other senators said they may try to amend a House bill now making its way through the Senate in an attempt to avoid the Education and Health Committee.